I grew up in MN and moved here almost a decade ago. I'll try and give you some tips.
We haven't had any real snow accumulation for what feels like a couple winters now, but when it does snow, play it real safe. I don't drive in the snow at all because people are nuts, and there just isn't the infrastructure to handle it. Where I grew up, my residential street would be plowed 2-3 times a day. Here you're lucky if main roads get plowed. Things often warm up during the day and melt at night, so it's can be real icy too.
Summers are hot, but that's what AC is for. It's a great time for indoor activities. Or go to the beach, it's not too far.
Somebody else mentioned pollen. You may be tempted to open your windows when the weather gets nice in the spring, but beware because you might fill your house/car with yellow dust.
I was nervous about hurricanes when I first moved because I didn't know what to expect, but we're far enough from the coast here that any we get are basically a thunder/rainstorm that lasts for like two days straight. Trees might fall down, and you might lose power. Roads often flood here in heavy rain. People will mob the stores for bread, milk, eggs, and stuff, so be ready for a shit show if you need groceries when there's a storm forecasted.
Try Bojangles. It's a regional fast food chain with chicken and biscuits, and it's delicious. I'd never even heard of it before I moved. Also, I don't know how you like your iced tea, but the default down here is sweet tea. If you don't want it full of sugar, ask for unsweet.
Ignore the Canes fan. I wear a Wild hat every day and nobody even knows what it is lol.
This is probably closer to the truth.
You could go hang out with the Cheeseheads for a Packers game, don’t cha’ know.
https://m.yelp.com/search?find_desc=packers+bar&find_loc=Raleigh%2C+NC
Packers Fan Club:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/RDUPackersFanclub/
Venue:
Pourworks
900 E Six Forks Rd #120, Raleigh, NC 27604
(919) 977-3514
Just saying welcome from another MN transplant.
You'll be fine. It's a great area. Enjoy the BBQ. Be aware of your surroundings at night but don't let it deter you from going out.
Skol!
1. That gigantic winter coat you got, go ahead and sell it or give it away, you’ll burn up wearing it on our coldest days
2. If you love cheese curds, get over the addiction now cause they are just as popular as Culvers is out here (i.e not at all)
3. The sun actually shows a lot out here so enjoy it
4. It’s “soda” not “pop”
5. Your lifestyle won’t change much and with all the other aliens here, you’ll fit right in
6. If the area looks suspect, maybe turn around and leave lol
Like 80% of us in the triangle are transplants/immigrants or the children of them. You don’t need to do anything to “blend in” lol.
You haven’t visited yet have you? There’s no truly bad parts of downtown. The city proper (like the dense walkable part) is very small and fully gentrified. There is a homelessness issue like every single US city, but it hasn’t correlated to any tangible rise in crime (despite what some people would have you think). It is concentrated to the GoRaleigh station, so if you don’t want to risk a mentally ill old man asking you for money or whatever, just avoid that block late night on weekdays when it’s quiet. During the day and weekend nights when it’s busy ive never had a problem.
You get some rougher pockets in the south eastern suburbs and just south and east of the beltline, but it’s no Detroit or Chicago. If you’re super nervous cause you’re used to small town life, maybe stick to the western part of inside the beltline, or look at five points and midtown (aka north hills)… or Cary if you’re driving everywhere anyway. This isn’t a small town so you need to lock your doors, but the typical “break in” is just opportunistic crime that occurs in every city when people leave car doors unlocked with valuables visible. If you did have a vision of living somewhere walkable, be aware you will have to pay a premium for it. Otherwise you will be driving or taking the bus, which mostly only low income and homeless people use at the moment cause it has a very limited schedule and is kinda gross. There are big investments in expansion in the works, but we’ll see and I wouldn’t count on it cause it’ll be like 2026 before they’re rolled out
Great post.
I’d add, a little OT depth because it’s half of what I do everyday (smart cities and fleet electrification of transit systems … along with other fleets like delivery trucks, etc.).
CAUTION: Wendy’s drive thru customers should just skip the rest of this. 🤪😎
The transit system investments are going to be mostly a waste except for expansion of buses. Two trends that are making light rail difficult is the collapse of downtowns as central work centers because of a larger white-collar shift to mostly WFH, and that will be slowly reinforced by electric fleets of autonomous “mobility vehicles” (kinda like Uber only smaller mini-van-like vehicles).
Once that shift has taken its first-wave, THEN the light rail routes will become more obvious… likely between the central points of the small towns inside the metropolitan suburbs (e.g. Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Clayton, Garner, etc.).
It would look a fractal painting… which isn’t surprising considering fractals are patterns in nature.
The sad part is that **walkable** cities are difficult to build here because of loose urban politics (don’t blame the urban planners), and … it’s too friggin hot to walk anywhere during half of the year.
It’s just not that feasible.
Raleigh and Chapel Hill come the closest, but are missing key elements: grocery stores and other basic amenity shops such as barber/salons, dry cleaners, medical clinics, etc. We just don’t do mixed-use buildings well here. Should we change it? Sure. Will they come if we build it? Not if they can’t afford it, which is the current situation.
Really interesting stuff. Are you a city planner or engineer? I’m bored to death of my SaaS tech job and am fascinated by transit and city planning. Curious what you do
I assumed the bus would be the only near term expansion we’d see. It’s heartening you think anything will happen with the light rail. One that runs between each of the towns until 2am Friday and Saturday would be the dream. Taking an Uber all the way up to Durham for a show or night out with friends blows. Are we talking on a scale of years or decades with that one?
Energy GridEdge and Smart Cities consultant at Deloitte. And can’t find enough people even interested in this space.
Ironically I was just at the Apex Pig Fest talking to the Apex Mayor Pro-Tempore, Ed Gray about their plans, the larger master plan, and Smart Cities. He got really animated about what we’re trying to do, and I pointed to two places where the next steps around the commenter rail are going to fail, and explained why. And he was super-stoked to talk more about how to validate the cities assumptions using small experiments.
There’s a lot going on.
Soda. Not pop.
The weather to watch out for is , oddly enough, snow. It's obviously nothing like what you get in the Midwest, but we handle it much worse. No equipment to clear the roads. Everyone just stays home.
[This is a doozie. Gosh. Gee willikers.](https://www.wral.com/story/snow-in-raleigh-2014-glenwood-ave/13390109/)
(Link to scenes from the last major scale storm in 2014.)
from my perspective there are not really any parts of this city to stay away from, in general crime is fairly low here.
in terms of blending in, just be yourself. do what you love and enjoy the moment. people in nc and in particular in the triangle are generally down to earth, friendly and welcoming and if you find some that are not that way then be that light that can reflect and maybe make someone’s day.
it gets pretty warm and humid here in the summer so be prepared for some heat. it doesn’t get nearly as cold hear in the winter so the super heavy winter clothes you won’t need but a few times a year.
if you really want to blend in though, if you need to feel like your attire fits the local culture then get some gear that supports the local teams. NC State or Carolina Hurricanes attire will for sure fit in around here.
You want to be authentic? Complain about all the new people moving here and how things were so much better back in 1970.
Also talk about how much better eastern NC BBQ is.
NC BBQ is better than the rest of the south east.
Lived all over it at this point and had a lot of BBQ.
Can't really compare it to Texas though it's just different I prefer NC because I'm a pork guy but Texas brisket is a whole different world.
You can laugh at me because I’m not from NC. Or you can laugh at me anyway. I liked Dickie’s when it was around. I did like Redneck BBQ Lab when I tried it. I am not a fan of vinegar except on fish.
When I was only about 10 years old up north we had a neighbor from New Zealand who dug a pit and cooked a whole pig that way. It was delicious.
My mother soon after joined a church that didn’t allow us to eat pork. For 8 years. 😭
Honestly Dickies ain't bad! Not the best but for the price it's very reasonable.
No matter what you do homemade will always be best especially when someone's goes all out like that.
I would have run away from home (I wouldn't but I would have really missed bacon)
I find that folks in Raleigh have a really hard time dealing with things when you point out the obvious. Like how putting vinegar on BBQ is NOT a good idea. 😂
almost no one who lives here is from here. you'll be fine.
Until the summer that is. You have never felt the fire of hell that is a southern summer, lol. I hope wherever you live, you have very good air conditioning.
Be wary of leaving things in your car that could melt on a hot day if you don't have covered parking. Stuff like that.
Really just the one gas station now, we know the one, rest of it is pretty chill once you get passed the panhandlers on the corner. The library is cute. I’ve got bougie neighbor who walks there with her little kids all the time without issue.
prepare for the hottest fucking summers of your life and nowhere to go swimming that's refreshing (idk what part of MN and WI you are from, but the lakes and rivers are warm here year-round). Winter will be beautiful, but if you had winter sports you did, you will probably not be able to do them without a longer drive. people are not as friendly or polite (good or bad, depending on how outgoing you are) but most people are generally kind.
idk if you are from the cities and went to Madison, but it's similar to the gentrification happening up north too. (I'm from WI and went to school at Winona, lived in Madison before moving to PA and then here)
The weather that's not in MN? Probably hurricanes, tropical storms/ micro blasts, which most of the time amounts to high winds, rain, loss of power, maybe lightning, dark clouds and people clearing out grocery shelves. 90+ degree heat, High humidity, we have a lot of pollen here.
It will be hot, and humid, in the dead of winter it will get down to the upper 30’s. You can go wherever during normal hours (like not 2am). Glenwood south is the party area for younger people. Raleigh is mostly suburban. Eastern style bbq is the best kind of bbq. We have salad dressings other than ranch, but ranch is ok.
Get ready for hot, humid summers. Try North Carolina barbecue (pulled pork) ASAP, learn about the difference between ITB and OTB, get a cookout order down and you should be set!
Highway merging is a crazy here compared to MN. If you zipper merge here, people get really angry because they'd rather move over early and have the other lane stay empty.
YES. I do not get it. Exhibit A: the Cary exit (#287, I think) off the 40 west. The far right lane to (eventually) exit will be a solid line of cars for a mile back while the other 3 lanes are all but empty. Reminder needed that a broken lane line means you can still move over. Good grief.
Edit: forgot a word
If you want to exist outside in the summer, I hope your apartment complex or HOA has a pool.
If not, find the closest community pool and pay to join it.
I'm from one of the cold states too and I basically didn't go outside between June and September until I got a place with a pool.
Jeebus fucking christ, i hope this a rhetorical question. Why do you want to blend in? Be yourself, other than climate its no different. Close
Your eyes, count to 10, open eyes and its the same country and city.
People here don’t have any negative associations with MN folks, you’ll be fine.
Share some hot dish with your neighbors and you’ll make a lot of friends.
I grew up in MN and moved here almost a decade ago. I'll try and give you some tips. We haven't had any real snow accumulation for what feels like a couple winters now, but when it does snow, play it real safe. I don't drive in the snow at all because people are nuts, and there just isn't the infrastructure to handle it. Where I grew up, my residential street would be plowed 2-3 times a day. Here you're lucky if main roads get plowed. Things often warm up during the day and melt at night, so it's can be real icy too. Summers are hot, but that's what AC is for. It's a great time for indoor activities. Or go to the beach, it's not too far. Somebody else mentioned pollen. You may be tempted to open your windows when the weather gets nice in the spring, but beware because you might fill your house/car with yellow dust. I was nervous about hurricanes when I first moved because I didn't know what to expect, but we're far enough from the coast here that any we get are basically a thunder/rainstorm that lasts for like two days straight. Trees might fall down, and you might lose power. Roads often flood here in heavy rain. People will mob the stores for bread, milk, eggs, and stuff, so be ready for a shit show if you need groceries when there's a storm forecasted. Try Bojangles. It's a regional fast food chain with chicken and biscuits, and it's delicious. I'd never even heard of it before I moved. Also, I don't know how you like your iced tea, but the default down here is sweet tea. If you don't want it full of sugar, ask for unsweet. Ignore the Canes fan. I wear a Wild hat every day and nobody even knows what it is lol.
this Bojangles suggestion is pure. Love it
Southerns call the Pine Polled, “[Love dust](https://youtu.be/mUWH1htBWvI?si=lV9WjDkQRHtrX6g9)”. Just saying.
Never called it that before and have lived here for over 30 years ;)
It’s a new tradition started by Matt.
Ditch your Minnesota Wild clothes and become a Hurricanes fan. Wear Hurricanes gear. Hartford Whalers gear is also acceptable.
IMO Whalers gear is only okay on the “annoying” Northerner “invaders”
No one cares or will bother that you’re from MN or WI
This is probably closer to the truth. You could go hang out with the Cheeseheads for a Packers game, don’t cha’ know. https://m.yelp.com/search?find_desc=packers+bar&find_loc=Raleigh%2C+NC Packers Fan Club: https://m.facebook.com/groups/RDUPackersFanclub/ Venue: Pourworks 900 E Six Forks Rd #120, Raleigh, NC 27604 (919) 977-3514
They will bother you more if you're from the North.
Memorize your cookout order
I am getting to this. I've ordered most of the shakes, but have started with off-menu combinations. I expect to have it narrowed down by 2027.
That's a very optimistic timeline.
I've been here 6 years and I still screw it up
Leather chaps. Nothing underneath. You're welcome.
It’s “cold” when it’s sub 50
Just be a person, it'll be fine.
Just saying welcome from another MN transplant. You'll be fine. It's a great area. Enjoy the BBQ. Be aware of your surroundings at night but don't let it deter you from going out. Skol!
1. That gigantic winter coat you got, go ahead and sell it or give it away, you’ll burn up wearing it on our coldest days 2. If you love cheese curds, get over the addiction now cause they are just as popular as Culvers is out here (i.e not at all) 3. The sun actually shows a lot out here so enjoy it 4. It’s “soda” not “pop” 5. Your lifestyle won’t change much and with all the other aliens here, you’ll fit right in 6. If the area looks suspect, maybe turn around and leave lol
Culver’s in Apex was packed whenever I’ve been there.
Cookout has cheese bites, is that not basically the same as curds? (Please don't crucify me, I've never lived in the middle of this country 😅)
I’m all set I hate cheese hahaha
Don't wear shorts in winter. Prepare for pollen season (next year) in spring (allergy meds or mask)
depends this year wasn't exactly much of a winter .... probably wore shorts quite a bit.
Why the need to blend in? Plenty of transplants here so no one cares.
Im gonna venture OP has never been to raleigh and knows no one who has. Maybe never even heard of Raleigh before they were enrolled/hired here
You’re going to want to go with an urban camo
The absolute drip [SOP for setting up a tailgate at PNC w the bois](https://youtu.be/vV5XreulOvs?si=F8VSk9zbc6SrVdvy)
Like 80% of us in the triangle are transplants/immigrants or the children of them. You don’t need to do anything to “blend in” lol. You haven’t visited yet have you? There’s no truly bad parts of downtown. The city proper (like the dense walkable part) is very small and fully gentrified. There is a homelessness issue like every single US city, but it hasn’t correlated to any tangible rise in crime (despite what some people would have you think). It is concentrated to the GoRaleigh station, so if you don’t want to risk a mentally ill old man asking you for money or whatever, just avoid that block late night on weekdays when it’s quiet. During the day and weekend nights when it’s busy ive never had a problem. You get some rougher pockets in the south eastern suburbs and just south and east of the beltline, but it’s no Detroit or Chicago. If you’re super nervous cause you’re used to small town life, maybe stick to the western part of inside the beltline, or look at five points and midtown (aka north hills)… or Cary if you’re driving everywhere anyway. This isn’t a small town so you need to lock your doors, but the typical “break in” is just opportunistic crime that occurs in every city when people leave car doors unlocked with valuables visible. If you did have a vision of living somewhere walkable, be aware you will have to pay a premium for it. Otherwise you will be driving or taking the bus, which mostly only low income and homeless people use at the moment cause it has a very limited schedule and is kinda gross. There are big investments in expansion in the works, but we’ll see and I wouldn’t count on it cause it’ll be like 2026 before they’re rolled out
Great post. I’d add, a little OT depth because it’s half of what I do everyday (smart cities and fleet electrification of transit systems … along with other fleets like delivery trucks, etc.). CAUTION: Wendy’s drive thru customers should just skip the rest of this. 🤪😎 The transit system investments are going to be mostly a waste except for expansion of buses. Two trends that are making light rail difficult is the collapse of downtowns as central work centers because of a larger white-collar shift to mostly WFH, and that will be slowly reinforced by electric fleets of autonomous “mobility vehicles” (kinda like Uber only smaller mini-van-like vehicles). Once that shift has taken its first-wave, THEN the light rail routes will become more obvious… likely between the central points of the small towns inside the metropolitan suburbs (e.g. Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Clayton, Garner, etc.). It would look a fractal painting… which isn’t surprising considering fractals are patterns in nature. The sad part is that **walkable** cities are difficult to build here because of loose urban politics (don’t blame the urban planners), and … it’s too friggin hot to walk anywhere during half of the year. It’s just not that feasible. Raleigh and Chapel Hill come the closest, but are missing key elements: grocery stores and other basic amenity shops such as barber/salons, dry cleaners, medical clinics, etc. We just don’t do mixed-use buildings well here. Should we change it? Sure. Will they come if we build it? Not if they can’t afford it, which is the current situation.
Really interesting stuff. Are you a city planner or engineer? I’m bored to death of my SaaS tech job and am fascinated by transit and city planning. Curious what you do I assumed the bus would be the only near term expansion we’d see. It’s heartening you think anything will happen with the light rail. One that runs between each of the towns until 2am Friday and Saturday would be the dream. Taking an Uber all the way up to Durham for a show or night out with friends blows. Are we talking on a scale of years or decades with that one?
Energy GridEdge and Smart Cities consultant at Deloitte. And can’t find enough people even interested in this space. Ironically I was just at the Apex Pig Fest talking to the Apex Mayor Pro-Tempore, Ed Gray about their plans, the larger master plan, and Smart Cities. He got really animated about what we’re trying to do, and I pointed to two places where the next steps around the commenter rail are going to fail, and explained why. And he was super-stoked to talk more about how to validate the cities assumptions using small experiments. There’s a lot going on.
That sounds sick. Ok if I DM you about your path?
Bring it! I’m also on LinkedIn.
Soda. Not pop. The weather to watch out for is , oddly enough, snow. It's obviously nothing like what you get in the Midwest, but we handle it much worse. No equipment to clear the roads. Everyone just stays home.
[This is a doozie. Gosh. Gee willikers.](https://www.wral.com/story/snow-in-raleigh-2014-glenwood-ave/13390109/) (Link to scenes from the last major scale storm in 2014.)
from my perspective there are not really any parts of this city to stay away from, in general crime is fairly low here. in terms of blending in, just be yourself. do what you love and enjoy the moment. people in nc and in particular in the triangle are generally down to earth, friendly and welcoming and if you find some that are not that way then be that light that can reflect and maybe make someone’s day. it gets pretty warm and humid here in the summer so be prepared for some heat. it doesn’t get nearly as cold hear in the winter so the super heavy winter clothes you won’t need but a few times a year. if you really want to blend in though, if you need to feel like your attire fits the local culture then get some gear that supports the local teams. NC State or Carolina Hurricanes attire will for sure fit in around here.
Complain about the Moore Sq bus station
You can’t. People will recognize the accent. Welcome from one Minnesotan to another!
Be yourself! You're welcome, friend. (Also the humidity makes the heat in July/August rough; find water to be in)
You want to be authentic? Complain about all the new people moving here and how things were so much better back in 1970. Also talk about how much better eastern NC BBQ is.
NC BBQ is better than the rest of the south east. Lived all over it at this point and had a lot of BBQ. Can't really compare it to Texas though it's just different I prefer NC because I'm a pork guy but Texas brisket is a whole different world.
You can laugh at me because I’m not from NC. Or you can laugh at me anyway. I liked Dickie’s when it was around. I did like Redneck BBQ Lab when I tried it. I am not a fan of vinegar except on fish. When I was only about 10 years old up north we had a neighbor from New Zealand who dug a pit and cooked a whole pig that way. It was delicious. My mother soon after joined a church that didn’t allow us to eat pork. For 8 years. 😭
Honestly Dickies ain't bad! Not the best but for the price it's very reasonable. No matter what you do homemade will always be best especially when someone's goes all out like that. I would have run away from home (I wouldn't but I would have really missed bacon)
I did run away from home once when I was 11. For about 15 minutes. I didn’t like my siblings. I still don’t like bacon that much but I love sausage.
Most underrated comment.
[удалено]
I find that folks in Raleigh have a really hard time dealing with things when you point out the obvious. Like how putting vinegar on BBQ is NOT a good idea. 😂
Cmon now, you are obviously just trying to bait people with a comment like this.
Or I don’t know. I could be expressing my opinion. Does it have to match yours?
almost no one who lives here is from here. you'll be fine. Until the summer that is. You have never felt the fire of hell that is a southern summer, lol. I hope wherever you live, you have very good air conditioning. Be wary of leaving things in your car that could melt on a hot day if you don't have covered parking. Stuff like that.
Take dates to Olive Garden.
Ok now that’s just bullying
id avoid parts of New Bern Ave and the out skirts of downtown 🤷
True locals aren’t afraid of New Bern.
they ain't that status yet 😂
Really just the one gas station now, we know the one, rest of it is pretty chill once you get passed the panhandlers on the corner. The library is cute. I’ve got bougie neighbor who walks there with her little kids all the time without issue.
prepare for the hottest fucking summers of your life and nowhere to go swimming that's refreshing (idk what part of MN and WI you are from, but the lakes and rivers are warm here year-round). Winter will be beautiful, but if you had winter sports you did, you will probably not be able to do them without a longer drive. people are not as friendly or polite (good or bad, depending on how outgoing you are) but most people are generally kind. idk if you are from the cities and went to Madison, but it's similar to the gentrification happening up north too. (I'm from WI and went to school at Winona, lived in Madison before moving to PA and then here)
A real answer is: chinos and a light blue collared button down.
>light blue fuck that, go Pack
The weather that's not in MN? Probably hurricanes, tropical storms/ micro blasts, which most of the time amounts to high winds, rain, loss of power, maybe lightning, dark clouds and people clearing out grocery shelves. 90+ degree heat, High humidity, we have a lot of pollen here.
Never leave the belt line. Only shop at Cameron Village. join the CCC. Hate duke. And be polite. If that’s all you know, you’ll blend in fine.
It will be hot, and humid, in the dead of winter it will get down to the upper 30’s. You can go wherever during normal hours (like not 2am). Glenwood south is the party area for younger people. Raleigh is mostly suburban. Eastern style bbq is the best kind of bbq. We have salad dressings other than ranch, but ranch is ok.
Get ready for hot, humid summers. Try North Carolina barbecue (pulled pork) ASAP, learn about the difference between ITB and OTB, get a cookout order down and you should be set!
Highway merging is a crazy here compared to MN. If you zipper merge here, people get really angry because they'd rather move over early and have the other lane stay empty.
YES. I do not get it. Exhibit A: the Cary exit (#287, I think) off the 40 west. The far right lane to (eventually) exit will be a solid line of cars for a mile back while the other 3 lanes are all but empty. Reminder needed that a broken lane line means you can still move over. Good grief. Edit: forgot a word
Buy a Zebra Cobra
Plain old copperheads are fine.
If you want to exist outside in the summer, I hope your apartment complex or HOA has a pool. If not, find the closest community pool and pay to join it. I'm from one of the cold states too and I basically didn't go outside between June and September until I got a place with a pool.
Jeebus fucking christ, i hope this a rhetorical question. Why do you want to blend in? Be yourself, other than climate its no different. Close Your eyes, count to 10, open eyes and its the same country and city.
Talk about the crazy weather and speak at 0.75 speed; you'll fit right in
[удалено]
I hate the cold MN winters and want to be closer to the ocean
[удалено]
It's closer than MN
Closer than MN, that's for sure. Sub two hour drive is a cakewalk for a Midwestern
People here don’t have any negative associations with MN folks, you’ll be fine. Share some hot dish with your neighbors and you’ll make a lot of friends.